Life Profession of the Monastic Vow by Br. Aidan William Owen - February 12, 2019

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Robert Sevensky, OHC
Life Profession of the Monastic Vow by Br. Aidan William Owen - February 12, 2019

Song of Songs, 8:5-7; 10-14
Romans 8:18-30
Luke 15:11-24 [25-32]

Click here for an audio version of the sermon.

Who chose these lessons, these Bible passages?

Well, Br. Aidan, that's who.  And if you know him at all, you can hear him and his interests and his heart all over them.  From the Song of Songs through the Paul's Letter to the Romans to the ever evocative story of the Lost Son, we are hearing themes and memes and questions that Aidan and we have pondered and wrestled with for generations.  Of course, there are no doubt more private or interior reasons for their selection that only Br. Aidan knows.  And I'd venture to say that there are other reasons or motives that even he is as yet unaware of.  Scripture is like that: we think we know what we are getting into, and then find ourselves surprised, challenged, rebuked, transformed.  We think we know where we are going with some familiar psalm or biblical passage and discover, if we stick with it long enough, that it has another, often more profound and more relevant role to play in our journey.

And what's true of Sacred Scripture is true even more so of God:  we think we finally have a handle on the Holy One only to discover that, on the contrary, it's the Holy One who has the handle on us.  How frightening, disorienting and wonderful.

And then there's vocation...the way we live out that relationship in our lives.  Chosen, we think, for good reasons, solid, apt. And then we find out  that we may not have been in the driver's seat at all.  As Paul says to the Romans:

“..those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son... And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

That's you, Br. Aidan.  And that's us too, brothers and sisters. That's all of us here today.

The first reading today may be especially puzzling or surprising to many.  It is from the Song of Songs, a book traditionally ascribed to King Solomon.  What it is is a love song, a rather sensual and erotic love song, a dialog between the Lover and the Beloved.  But those who know something of monastic history know that this tender, racy, exquisitely lovely paean to human erotic attraction and sensual love also know that in the Medieval period, during the flowering of the monastic spirituality, it was next to  the Gospels, the most commented upon text from the Bible.  Not bad for a book of only 8 chapters!  And this is because the monastic tradition had not yet fallen into the unfortunate segregation between so-called different kinds of love—agape love, brotherly love, erotic love, contemplative love—that we find in 20th century writers.  Rather they knew that—to quote out of content—love is love.  And our love of God, our love of the True and the Beautiful, our love of the Just and Holy, follows a shape and a desire that is not foreign to the love between people, whether that of spouses or friends or scholars.  We learn about loving God by observing these loves in our world and even in ourselves. The monastics of old knew this.  And we constantly need to rediscover  it.

The Song of Songs tells us that:  “...love is as strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.”  I think it certain that the tradition saw in this love strong as death, this passion fierce as the grave the person of Jesus, whose victory over death is, first and last, a victory of love, a triumph of Life. If, as Paul says, the whole creation is groaning, it is groaning for a full participation in that victory, yearning as does Aidan,  as do we all, for fullness of Life.

In some sense, it was Br. Aidan who already wrote his own profession homily.  It is in his blog “Grounding in the Spirit” posted on January 6 and titled “planting tulips in a time of war.”  If you have not read it, I urge you to do so.  It is both a profound reflection on one man's vocation journey in dialog with a short story or dream narrative which is also his and an honest exploration of the dynamics of hope.

The title “planting tulips in a time of war” takes its weight from Br. Aidan's love of and concern for the future of the earth and the grounding and revolutionary act of planting tulips or other fall bulbs.  It is about the hope implicit in it, the outrageous character of committing small acts of beauty when the heart is breaking and the world around us and perhaps within us is falling apart.

Br. Aidan says:

“Part of the reality I live with is that...I still choose to stay.  My choice isn't painless. But it isn't difficult either. I don't chose to stay because I love monastic life, though I do love it. I don't choose to stay because I feel somehow God has ordained me for it. I don't believe in that kind of God. I choose to  stay because this is who I am. I am a monk. And not just any monk, but a monk here, in this place, on this land, in this moment of history. I stay because I cannot do otherwise.”

Could this be what St. Paul was getting at after all, with all his talk of predestination and justification and glorification?

Br. Aidan goes on:

“I stay in the monastery because it is who I am. But it is also who I choose to be. I choose to allow this land, this place, these people to claim me.” 

And:

“I also choose to stay, because not to choose is to die.”

This manifesto published a month ago rings clear today and it will echo every day in Aidan's life as it does in all lives.  I think of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th century Cistercian founder, who asked himself daily:  Bernard, what are you doing in this monastery? And he asked not an opportunity for a quick exit when the going got rough, but as a reminder, the kind of reminder each of us needs, whether the subject be monastery or ministry, profession or relationship or life story. And as an opportunity to revisit, recalibrate and recommit.  It is true of all of us:  “Not to chose is to die.”

Yes, planting tulips is a very great act of resistance.  And it would be nice if, as part of the ceremony today, we gave you tulips.  But no, instead we are going to give you a Rule and a Cross.  A Rule to remind you and us that we are partners together in this enterprise that we call monastic life, Christian life, human life.  And a small wooden Cross, you one and only possession. But we we give you that cross with the reminder that we follow not the cross but the Crucified One. He is the One who will meet you when you are still far off and run and put his arms around you and kiss you. The One who will bring out the best robe and put it around your shoulders. The One who will put a ring on your finger and sandals on your feet and will kill the fatted calf and celebrate.  Because, finally, finally you have come home.

Br. Aidan, today we all celebrate: for you, for ourselves, and for the countless people, of many faiths and none,  who dare to risk and to hope and to trust...and to plant tulips.

Thanks be to God!